Strategy | Editing | Writing

How I became a writer

My whole life, I wanted to be a writer. I wrote stories, kept a diary, edited my high school yearbook, wrote for my university’s student newspaper.

When I started university, they didn’t offer things like communications studies degrees. I made up my own communications program, doing a combined BA in English and multimedia. My courses covered web development, graphic design, writing, grammar, comprehension, communications. I even found my own internship, working in the university’s public relations office.

When I graduated, I turned that internship into a full-time job. I was a finally a professional writer.

Some of my first projects were working on a university-wide website redesign, writing for the faculty and staff newsletter, the university’s news web site and the alumni magazine, and handling community relations, working with neighbours, local businesses and the city.

I also started to do media relations for the university, where I prepared press releases and media pitches, found the right reporters and spread the news about what the university was doing to a wide audience. Finding the stories–whether they were about student activities, professors’ research or new academic programs–was exciting for me. Telling those stories in a way that made them exciting for other people showed me the power of communications.

When I moved from working in the university’s central PR office to working for the business school, I more than tripled media coverage for school. The school became the second most visible faculty at the university and in the top five business schools in Canada.

I can do the same for you. Interested in spreading the word about what you’re doing to more people? Want to build your reputation as an expert in your field? Contact me and let’s get started.